The Party of Six

Who the hell civilized the goblins?

They had a receptionist!

The adventure began with the party converging on a group of monsters' keep, without knowledge of the others. After a small kerfuffle with the guards of the keep's walls, the party makes their way inside. In the building they find a goblin receptionist and a bunch of goblin businessmen. The party's resident dwarf, with an attunement to hunting goblins, makes note that this is not how it should be. Upon the defeat of the goblin security force, the party learns from a mere office worker that the reason they are so organized is because they were raised and bred this way by "The Big Man."

After terrifying some more blue-collar goblins, and knocking out Nancy, the receptionist, the party begins to investigate a large door resembling a nuclear blast wall. Once, unlocked by inserting a goblin card key, the party rushes into some sort of laboratory, finding large glowing cylindrical, glass container. The party pulls some levers, breaking the glass and alerting the rest of the business goblins. Inside the cylinder they discover Art, a strange horned creature with a strong power surging through him. He seems to have been an arcane power source. They bust through a crowd of goblins and book it back to a local village, all the while questioning Art about who he is and what he's about, to no avail.

Around the light of the local inn's fireplace, the eldest party members discuss Art's possible origins, all noting a somewhat folklore like story about an entire population of horned people leaving the south-easternmost island of Rarrid in either a mass exodus, or a mass extinction. Either way, the tale remains only in stories of old monastic temples, wood-elven tribal stories, and dwarven children's stories.

The next morning, the party finds the inn crawling with knights in ornate grey armor. The Knights of Norien and their captain, Cyrus, have been inquiring about the defeat at the monster keep. Cyrus encounters the party, discovers they were responsible for the carnage, and interrogates them about their horned friend. After this, he commandeers the party, taking them to the great city of Norien. Before the journey, the party discovers Jarim's fear of horses.

On the ride to the Lord's manor, the party meets Roswell, the Norien Army's Artificer and learns a bit about why the Knights had been sent to the keep. Apparently, goblins have been organizing themselves like this for a while now, and are popping up all over the realm, with practically no explanation. The party communicates their information about "The Big Man," to Cyrus.

The arrival to Norien is strange. The city is often praised as a great one, but is actually quite quaint. It seems the city is built for function over fashion. This is reflected in the Lord's Manor, which, aside from being larger than most buildings, is not actually that ornate, resembling a common chapel. The party talks to the Lord, who relays more information about the goblin organization, which concerns him greatly. All of a sudden, a group of Dwarves from the North-East rush in, completely battered, telling of an ancient power source and an invasion being mounted at the Mouth of the Mountain. Following this immediately, the party is attacked by Spined Devils, which they defeat with ease. Upon their defeat, the Lord declares that they must stop this Aberrant evil, as they are the only ones who have seen a power source and survived. The party then prepares to make their journey to the Eastern Wing…